NEW YORK (AP) - Although Wall Street has logged its biggest two-day rally in five years, no one is ready to declare an end to the credit crisis that has pummeled stocks since the summer.

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Moreover, the Dow Jones industrial average will have to keep posting gains this week to keep November from being its worst month since September 2002.

Investors desperate for some good news about the economy and the struggling financial sector got some Tuesday and Wednesday as a Federal Reserve official hinted that the central bank may lower interest rates again, and cash-raising initiatives were announced by Citigroup Inc. and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage investor. Both companies have been hit hard by the steady stream of soured mortgages this year.

The belief that falling rates and an influx of cash could stanch, and perhaps reverse, months of losses at mortgage lenders and investment banks and help stop the economy from weakening drove the Dow up 331.01, or 2.55 percent, to 13,289.45, adding to the blue chip index's 215 point advance Tuesday. That gave the market's best known indicator its largest two-day point gain since Oct. 11, 2002, and its largest two-day percentage gain since Nov. 21, 2002.

But triple-digit moves - including jumps one day and plunges the next - have become commonplace on Wall Street the past few months as investors' optimism about an end to credit market problems has alternately surged and then evaporated. And so the Dow, which plunged 240 points just this past Monday, remains more than 6 percent below its Oct. 9 record close over 14,000, having succumbed to worries that the housing market's slump will lead to further losses for banks, and that the Fed can't keep slashing rates.

Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn, supplying the soothing balm the market needed, told the Council on Foreign Relations Wednesday that recent financial turbulence has reversed some of the improvement seen in markets in previous weeks and could squeeze credit for households and businesses. He said tight financial conditions may merit “offsetting” policy from the central bank.

That was enough to send stocks soaring. The Fed has already reduced rates at its last two meetings and continues to inject billions of dollars into the financial system through repurchase agreements to help calm the shaky markets. The central bank will hold its final rate-setting meeting of the year Dec. 11.

Some analysts were more upbeat after two days of big gains - but they're also wary.

“Assuming the economy doesn't go into recession, which at this point continues to be our call, the recent decline in major averages should set up for a short-term rally in the markets,” said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at Spencer Clarke LLC. However, he added, “the economy continues to face a significant number of headwinds in the months ahead.”

That means the market is likely to remain vulnerable as economic data is released. On Thursday and Friday, Wall Street will be reading government data on gross domestic product, new home sales and personal income and spending.

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